To buy time for finding a way for HD Kumaraswamy to stay on as Karnataka CM, the JD(S) decided to seek a vote of confidence in the Assembly on October 18.
NEW DELHI: To buy time for finding a way for HD Kumaraswamy to stay on as Karnataka CM, the JD(S) decided to seek a vote of confidence in the Assembly on October 18. The long-awaited meeting between JD(S) chief Deve Gowda and BJP president Rajnath Singh took place in New Delhi on Friday.
While JD(S) sources claimed October 18 was chosen for the vote of confidence for astrological reasons, BJP leaders felt it was more likely to give time to Gowda to bargain with the Congress for outside support for his son’s regime.
Governor Rameshwar Thakur’s role now becomes crucial. This morning the JD(S) convened an emergency meeting and decided to ask the Governor to convene a special session of the Assembly for the confidence vote. Absent were the 17 BJP ministers whose resignations have not yet been accepted.
The reaction from the State BJP was swift. Yediyurappa, who was to have taken over as Chief Minister under the agreement between the two parties, said: “If they want polls, we are ready. Let us go to the people. They will decide who is right and who is not.”
Former BJP president Venkaiah Naidu, who played a key role in clinching the alliance, said in an interview that he had believed Kumaraswamy words that he has “non-Congress blood” in him when he parted ways with it and his father Deve Gowda 20 months ago. “We don’t consider it as a mistake... We have made a wrong assessment.
That can be the correct description. If they agree as per the agreement fine, otherwise let there be elections. I can tell you the BJP will become victorious and Yediyurappa will become the next Chief Minister,” Naidu said.
By afternoon the JD(S) leadership had shifted base to Delhi. The meeting of the party’s political affairs committee began two hours late at 5 pm. Gowda claimed that he would not have any understanding with the Congress.
After Deve Gowda’s meeting with Rajnath, the BJP Parliamentary Board would meet to take a final call on the subject.
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